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THE POLITICAL USE OF THE BIBLE IN EARLY MODERN BRITAIN:
process of law, during his occasional imprisonments
when his own liberty was in jeopardy. 320
The “Lawes of England,” according to Lilburne, were
“the PERFECTION of Reason” if they were consonant
with “the law Eternall and Naturall, and not contrary to
the word of God.” 321 The Levellers generally considered
the Scriptures and the laws of nature as complementary,
and rights consistent with them pre-existing to civil
government, and therefore inherent, inalienable, and
inviable. Civil government was ordained to secure them,
and by doing so, achieve the peace, security, and safety
of the Commonwealth.
Equality and Equity under Law
The Levellers located a theological foundation for
equality in man’s internal nature and created
constitution; God fashioned men and women as the
most noble of creatures, having made them in His
image. Levellers resorted to scriptural texts which
emphasised man’s divine image-bearing nature, his
capacity to reason, to take dominion over creation, and
govern himself, whereas others focused on texts which
stressed the Fall, human depravity, and corrupt reason.
Lilburne, in Londons liberty in chains discovered (1646),
inserts an elaborate discussion of God’s creative efforts,
and its implications for equality, authority, and
government are worth noting here in full. This quote
also presents clear contrasts with Royalist
interpretations of Genesis chapters 1 and 4 previously
discussed.
THE omnipotent, glorious, and wise God,
creating man for his own praise; made him
more glorious then all the rest of his Creatures
that he placed upon earth: creating him in his
own Image, (which principally consisted in his
reason and understanding) and made him
Lord over the earth, and all the things therein
contained, Gen. 26, 27, 28, 29. and chap. 5.1.
and 9.6. 1Cor. 11.7. Col.3. 10; But made him
not Lord, or gave him dominion over the
individuals of Mankind, no further then by
free consent, or agreement, by giving up their
power, each to other, for their better being; so
that originally, he gave no Lordship, nor
Soveraignty, to any of Adams Posterity, by Will,
and Prerogative, to rule over his Brethern-
Men, but ingraved by nature in the soule of
Man, this goulden and everlasting principle, to
doe to another, as he would have another to
do to him; but man by his transgression,
320
See The prisoners plea for a habeas corpus (London, May 9, 1648)
and The lawes funerall (London, May 15, 1648).
321
John Lilburne, Londons liberty in chains discovered (London,
November 2, 1646), 41.
falling from his perfection of reason (that
Image in which God created him, Col. 3. 10.)
became tyrannicall, and beastly in his
principles and actions; the effect of which, we
see in Caines slaying of Abel; for which he was
accursed of God, and all things hee went
about, Gen. 4.8, 10, 11, 12. but God taking
mercy of Mankind in some measure, and not
executing the fulnesse of his wrath, in the 9. of
Gen. to revenge that beastliness, bloody,
revengfull, and devouring temper of Spirit,
that, by the fall, had now entred into the
Spirits of all Mankind; . . . 322
Where Royalists emphasised Adam’s original authority
to rule, passed down as the right of the firstborn son,
the Levellers emphasised an inherited sonship in Adam,
a “birthright” of freedom as opposed to dominion over
others via patriarchy. The Fall did not provide the
Levellers with principles of patriarchal rule, or Cain’s
murder of Abel as grounds for a natural right of rule of
the eldest; rather, these Royalist readings provided
Levellers with examples of tyranny and oppression.
Lilburne also prioritises the internal relational principle,
the “goulden and everlasting principle, to doe to
another, as he would have another to do to him,” which
God fixed in man’s “soule.”
To reiterate the vital role Lilburne’s ontology plays in
the development of his political principles, the
following quote from The free-mans freedome vindicated
(1646) emphasises God’s sovereignty, the image-bearing
nature of man (as male and female), man’s delegated
earthly dominion, equality of authority between the
genders, mans’ rational nature, and the nature of
delegated authority. Lilburne penned this entire passage
of one sentence while imprisoned at Newgate.
GOD, the absolute Soveraign Lord and King,
of all things in heaven and earth, the originall
fountain, and cause of all causes, who is
circumscribed, governed, and limited by no
rules, but doth all things meerly and onely by
his soveraign will, and unlimited good
pleasure, who made the world, and all things
thereto, for his own glory, and who by his own
will and pleasure, gave man (his meer creature)
the soveraignty (under himselfe) over all the
rest of his Creatures, Gen I. 26. 28. 29. and
indued him with a rationall soule, or
understanding, and thereby created him after
his own image, Gen I. 26. 27. and 9. 6. the
first of which was Adam, a male, or man made
out of the dust or clay, out of whose side was
taken a Rib, which by the soveraign and
absolute mighty creating power of God, was
322
Ibid., 17-18.
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